2am Phone Calls
by angel-death-dealer
Summary: The last time she almost loses him. Felicity/Oliver. Future-fic.


"Felicity."

"John? It's late, is everything okay?"

"No."

"John…"

"It's Oliver."

"Tommy. Tommy, wake up, baby."

Tommy Queen blearily opens his eyes when Felicity starts to sit him up despite the fact that he's mostly asleep. It's half past two in the morning, but she doesn't have a choice. There's no one who can babysit at such short notice when they're all heading to the hospital. Hospital. Oliver. The words hit her again and she tries not to scream. She wants to scream. She wants to cry a lot more than she wants to scream, but she can't do that. It'll scare Tommy.

"Wha-?"

Tommy's sat on the bed, his legs hanging off the edge as he slumps forward onto himself and Felicity pulls his coat on over his pyjamas. There's no time for getting dressed. She's barely had time to put shoes on and her own coat before waking him, and she's still wearing the panda print pyjamas and one of Oliver's hoodies beneath it.

"We've got to go out for a while, Tommy, okay?" she says, her voice soft but frantic.

"Don't wanna," Tommy complains, laying back down where he sat and curling up on his pillow even though he's wearing his coat as well.

Felicity merely takes advantage of his prone state and puts his soccer-ball shaped slippers over his thick winter socks. She's concentrating enough to know that it's freezing outside, but their scarves and gloves are already in her bag at the door. "We've got to go see Daddy," she tells him.

"Daddy," Tommy repeats, lifting his head up with more interesting. "Daddy's home?"

"Tommy," she whispers, sitting him up and making him look at her as she puts her hand on his face. "Baby, Daddy had an accident, so we've got to go to the hospital right now, okay?"

Tommy frowns at her. He's only four years old, she knows he can't possibly comprehend. "Daddy's hurt?"

"We have to go see him now, okay?" she tells him. "We have to go make sure Daddy's okay, so I need you to be a good boy for me right now, please?"

Tommy nods, and folds easily into his mother's arms as Felicity lifts him from his bed.

Felicity ignores the stares of the rest of the waiting area and gives the name of her husband when. They're wearing winter hats, slippers and coats over their pyjamas, and clearly a sight. While she's waiting impatiently for room details, she hears a shout of her name, and Diggle's standing there waiting for her.

"John," she breathes, moving towards him.

Thea's moments behind him, her face distraught but she forces a smile and lifts a confused Tommy out of Felicity's arms. From the look on her face, Felicity wants to cry. Thea was supposed to be on patrol with Oliver that night, and if she looked that devastated already… "Hey, there's my favourite little guy," Thea cooes in a thick voice. "Why don't you come with me and let Mommy talk to Uncle Digg? I got you your favourite hot chocolate as a special treat…"

Thea wanders into a private waiting area and Felicity's legs buckle slightly without the reassuring weight of her son in her arms. Digg's arms on her shoulder's steady her. "Is he-?"

"He's alive," he assures her immediately, and she lets out a breath that has her ducking her head.

"What happened? Can we see him?"

"He's in surgery," Diggle explains, and the tears fall onto her cheeks again. "They were patrolling in the Glades up on the rooftops, he went to jump and hit some ice on the last second. It threw him off balance and he fell six stories into an alley."

Felicity's hands fly up to her mouth with a loud gasp. That height held frightening possibilities even if Digg had already confirmed that he was alive. Had he hit his head? How many bones had he broken? How badly damaged was he? She thanks god for their wonderful health insurance plan that covered any possibility, but Oliver's body is his temple, and he worked so hard to condition it that she doesn't know if he'd survive losing any mobility.

"He wasn't awake when we got to him," Digg tells her, sparing her no detail as he guides her into a nearby chair and sits beside her. His hand never leaves her back. "They're not sure what the damage is yet. They took him into surgery as soon as we got here. They said they'll let us know as soon as there's any news."

She lowers her head into her hands and takes calming breaths. She can feel her chest restricting at the idea he may not survive whatever surgery they're doing and then she has to break her sons heart and tell him that Daddy's not coming home, and that thought has her choking down a fearful sob.

"Hey," Digg tells her softly, stroking his hand up and down her back as she tries to compose herself. "He will beat this. He's stronger than a patch of ice. But you need to take a few minutes and get your Mommy head on," he reminds her. "Tommy and Oliver need you to be strong for them right now."

"I want my Daddy."

"I want Daddy too."

Four hours later, their entire extended family is filling the private waiting area with the exception of Lyla and Sara. Diggle didn't want them up in the middle of the night, but Lyla's coming by as soon as she's taken Sara to school. She also tells them that she'll take care of Tommy's pre-school for the next few days and let them know he won't be there, and she'll bring them some clothes from home to change into. She thinks of things that Felicity didn't even think of.

Thea's sat with Felicity's head on her shoulder, with Tommy curled into his mother's lap. He'd finally fallen asleep an hour ago, but he'd been quietly calm for the rest of the time they'd been there, softly telling Thea about his day at pre-school and the dinosaur he'd painted. Felicity held him as he slept, her hand cupping his head against her shoulder so he wouldn't fall off her lap, but her own eyes couldn't close. From her perch at Thea's side, she watched the clock on the far wall. Whenever her eyes flickered down, she met the eyes of Diggle, who was sat beneath it. Laurel's beside him, and one time when she looks up, she realises that Barry and his team have joined them. She doesn't ask how or why, she just closes her eyes and rests against her son and her sister-in-law.

"Family of Oliver Queen?"

She's on her feet so fast that Thea barely has time to take her nephew and hoist his sleeping body onto her hip as Felicity moves towards the doctor. "I'm his wife. Is he okay?" she asked in a croaked voice.

"He's taken a lot of damage, but he made it through the surgery," the doctor tells them, and there's a collective sigh of relief throughout the room. "He's very lucky, but he's not out of the woods yet. We've removed his ruptured spleen, but there was some existing damage to his knee that was incredibly escalated with the way his leg was injured. We've repaired what we can, but when he wakes up he's going to be in a lot of pain."

"He's definitely going to wake up?" Felicity checks. "Because sometimes people survive surgeries and then-"

She's cut off by Digg's arm around her shoulders.

"I can assure you, Mrs. Queen, we're confident he will wake up. There were a few complications with his surgery but nothing out of the ordinary, and everything was handled perfectly by my team. If he'd sustained a head or spinal injury then this would be an entirely different conversation, but luckily that isn't something we have to worry about."

Felicity doesn't want to think about that.

"Can she see him?" Digg asks from her side.

The doctor nods. "One at a time, I'm afraid."

Thea, bless her soul, takes Tommy again.

Felicity follows the doctor to the ICU. That scares her. The ICU, she discovers, is a frighteningly peaceful place, and the haunting silence of Oliver's room is punctuated by the machines supporting him. There's a little part of her that's jealous that someone else's tech is supporting him. Supporting Oliver is her job, and hers only, and she remembers rewiring a defibrillator once to save him, so she hopes this equipment is a bit better because her hands are shaking too much to fix anything today.

Her hands are shaking as she takes hold of his, lowers her head to them, and cries into his limp palm.

"You can wake up any time," she says afterwards, when she's alone with his still form and she finally thinks of something to say. "Now, preferably. You're scaring us a bit. A lot."

He doesn't move yet, and she hates that.

Oliver always comes when she needs him.

Except now he can't.

She takes a break from his side when Thea comes into the room. Lyla arrived with some things for them and Tommy's awake, so she's back on Mom duty while wife duty is apparently suspended. Thea needs a moment with her brother anyway, so she tags out to make everybody happy and make sure that her and her son are okay. It pains her to leave Oliver's side, because he's vulnerable. He relies on her to keep him focused when he's vulnerable. He'll only relinquish that part of himself when they're together, and to leave him when he's more vulnerable than ever makes her feel guilty enough that she has to compose herself before she goes back to the waiting area.

She loves Lyla more than she ever has done before.

Lyla remembers a pack of baby-wipes that she can clean herself with, a change of clothes for both her and Tommy, and even a hairbrush. She remembers their toothbrushes and she pulls a chair into the tiny bathroom gets Tommy to clean his teeth in front of the mirrors there and encourages him to wash his face while Felicity stands stunned and is just thankful that they ever managed to have this woman come into their lives. She brings colouring books and stories and and entire rucksack of entertainment for Tommy.

Felicity leaves the hairbrush out for Thea, but she excuses herself for a few hours to get changed. She returns after only an hour, then sits down with Tommy and starts colouring with him.

Aunt Thea is the family favourite for a thousand reasons. Felicity is sure Tommy will forget many things about this moment in their lives, but he will never forget Aunt Thea being there with him for it.

Mid-afternoon, Oliver is taken off the ventilator. It's a tense moment but he continues to breath well on his own and he's even moved to a less high-risk area. With the private room they can afford, there's room for them all inside, but at that time people start to leave the family to their privacy. Lyla leaves when she has to collect Sara from school. She offers to take Tommy for the night but he refuses to leave Felicity's side. Laurel leaves a while after. Digg stays, but he comes and goes and Felicity wonders how many phone calls he's handling for them, because she doesn't remember arranging anything with the insurance company but she definitely remembers Digg bringing her things to sign. Thea stays because she's just as scared as Felicity is, and she's grateful for the steadfast company of her sister-in-law because Tommy goes silent when he sees how different his father looks in a hospital bed.

She goes home at night, though. Then they're alone.

The sun goes down, and Felicity brings their pyjamas back out. They curl together into the chair at Oliver's side, and read four of their favourite bedtime stories together. She's already managed to teach Tommy to read several words on his own, but they read The Gruffalo together and he's memorised every single word and ends up reading the second half of it to Daddy all on his own and he'd be so so proud, wouldn't he, Mommy?

Tommy wants to lie down soon after that, and she manages to curl him around Oliver's side and leverage one of Oliver's arms around him securely, sitting right behind him. Tommy's facing away from her now, and when he cuddles up to Oliver he suddenly looks very small. She strokes his back as her other hand grips Oliver's, and she presses a kiss to the back of her son's head.

"Will Daddy be awake in the morning?" he asks.

"I hope so, baby."

She wants to say yes, she really does.

"He just needs a nap, doesn't he?" Tommy checks.

"He does," she says, choking back the tears that are suffocating her again. "We just need to let him take a nap for as long as he needs to get better."

"It's taking a really long time," Tommy says with a whine in his voice.

"I know, sweetheart," she continues to stroke his back. "But the doctors said he's going to be okay when he wakes up. We need to be patient, okay?"

"I don't want to," he says as he starts to cry quietly into Oliver's armpit.

Felicity leans over her tiny boy, her lips firmly against his stubby hair that reminds her so much of Oliver's and she speaks while kissing him over and over. She tries to assure him that Daddy's going to be okay, and Daddy's going to come home with them soon and don't be scared, baby, Daddy's never going to leave us.

He falls asleep with tears on his cheeks. Felicity saves hers until after he's asleep.

Oliver wakes at eleven o'clock that night. His eyes flicker open slowly at first, but he's been out for so long with only minimal painkillers (at his written request in his insurance paperwork) that he doesn't need to fight through the anaesthesia. There's a moment of confusion when he shifts and Felicity's up on her feet in an instant, leaning over Tommy because she couldn't fall asleep, and she places her hands on his face, grounding him as he comes back to himself, kissing him wherever she can reach.

The moment he's alert, he takes a deep breath and his arms come up and wrap furiously around the son in his arms. He winces, and Felicity can tell that he's hurting badly, but he buries his face into his son's hair and inhales deeply. Then one arm is coming up to reach for her without pulling away from him and she's joining this awkward embrace that feels better than any homecoming she's ever had before.

"Don't ever scare us like that again," she tells him in a broken, tear-strained voice.

The nurses bring him more painkillers, frown at the idea of him curled up in bed with another person but Oliver simply refuses to allow anyone to move Tommy from his side, nor does he want to wake him. Felicity sinks onto the other side of the bed, crossing her legs beneath her as she waits for the nurse to finish checking the few machines he's still linked to and leave them in peace.

The moment she's gone, Oliver takes her hand and closes his eyes. "I thought that was it. I was falling and I…" he swallows thickly, and maybe it's the painkillers but there are tears on his cheeks as well as hers. "I'm done, Felicity."

"You have to be careful, Oliv-"

"No, careful isn't good enough," he says quietly, looking down between his sleeping son and their hands joined with their wedding rings. "It was too close this time. I have too much to lose now."

Felicity swallows and takes a shaky breath. She's wanted to hear this from Oliver for so long now, every time he steps out that door in the hood and leaves her and Tommy behind, and now that he's saying the words it's actually breaking her heart. The hood is what brought them together. The hood is now dispensable to him.

"I love you both so much," he murmurs into the dimly lit room.

"I love you too," she replies, moving her hand to stroke over his jaw. "But there are other ways. You don't have to give it up. It's important to you-"

"You're more important," he insists. "You...you, and Tommy, you're...everything," he breathes. "This is all I want for the rest of my days," he decides. "I want us, our family, a bigger family, and I don't want to relive my family's biggest moments when I'm falling off a rooftop."

She dips her head, bringing up her free hand to wipe at her own cheeks. "Okay," she nods. "As long as this is what you want," she checks. "Because you can't regret this." She wants to tell him that his injury might make the choice for him now anyway, but it's not the time for that. "I don't want you to regret making this choice."

Do not regret choosing us, she means. Do not regret choosing Oliver Queen over the Arrow.

Oliver is silent as he leans down to place a firm kiss on his son's head, smiling when Tommy shifts in his sleep and presses himself closer to his father with a deep breath of satisfaction when he finds the right spot. In his sleep, he mumbles about sharks and tigers and Oliver's smile increases.

"This is what I want," he says in a determined whisper.

She leans to him, this time planting her lips on his, and doesn't give him a verbal answer. They've always followed where the other lead, and now is no different. This is just their next step. They'll lay the Arrow to rest again, for good this time, and work on their next adventure. Oliver Queen. They'll focus on picking Tommy's school before the summer, on what they're going to get him for the holidays. They'll extend their family. They'll fill their home with laughter and love and nothing like the loss they almost suffered tonight.

"But really though," Felicity murmurs when their lips eventually separate. "Do not scare me like that again." He doesn't answer her, but his eyes are closing and he seems to be shifting into Tommy ever so slightly that she kisses his cheek. "Get some rest," she whispers. "You'll need some energy when he wakes up."

When Felicity sees her son's face when he wakes up and sees his precious Daddy already awake and smiling at him, she's more than ready for him to give up the Arrow.

This is much better.


End file.
